Casey reported in mid-July, 2022 that in August of 2020, EnviroGold Global executed a commercial agreement to undertake feasibility and metal recovery studies at the Hellyer Gold Mine tailings in Tasmania, Australia. The Hellyer tailings are comprised of refractory, polymetallic, volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) mineralised material produced as a by-product of underground mining operations at the Hellyer Gold Mine.
During its life, the Hellyer Mine produced 15 million t of ore and yielded 601 000 t of bulk concentrate, 2.7 million t of zinc (Zn) concentrate, and 728 000 t of lead (Pb) concentrate. Due to the refractory nature of the Hellyer VMS ore, initial data indicate that 95% of the gold and 67% of the silver remains unrecovered within the tailings. A historical (2020) JORC resource report indicated that the Heller Tailings contain 634 000 oz gold (Au), 22.9 million oz silver (Ag) and 419 000 t copper-lead-zinc with grades of 2.6 g/t Au, 94 g/t Ag, 2.33% Zn, 3.01% Pb and 0.19% copper (Cu) contained in 6.37 million t of measured and indicated, and 1.21 million t of inferred resources. EnviroGold Global expects further quantities of precious, critical, and strategic metals will be found within other tailings within Hellyer Gold Mine’s permitted operational area.
In 2021, following extensive technical development with Core Resources of Brisbane, Australia, the company announced the development of a proprietary flowsheet for the Hellyer tailings, with third-party data (Core Resources) indicating strong recoveries of the substantial precious metals within the Hellyer Tailings (~59% Au, ~90% Ag).
In February of 2022, the company announced the execution of a binding definitive agreement with Hellyer Gold Mines, granting EnviroGold Global the rights to reprocess the Hellyer tailings and recover the valuable metals subject to a profit-sharing agreement entitling EnviroGold Global to 50% of the pre-tax profits up to CAN$24 million per year and 65% of the pre-tax profits thereafter.
Additional significant milestones achieved for the Hellyer Project in 2022 include flowsheet optimization program undertaken with Core Resources that yielded substantial increases in recoveries of gold (from ~59% to ~80%) from the Hellyer Tailings, the announcement of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sedgman as a project partner, and the commencement of substantive negotiations for Hellyer project financing. The company continues to advance the project towards commercial metal production with initial pilot-scale metal production planned for 2022.
[Note: Full disclosure, I2M Consulting personnel initially gave a thumbs up on moving forward with the Hellyer tailings project and other projects in Australia (here)]
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